BLO transforms a DCR ice rink for 'Trouble in Tahiti'

Wednesday

Should we be offended that, after spending some formative years in various suburbs of Boston, Leonard Bernstein wrote an opera about the horrors of suburban life?

In “Trouble in Tahiti,” the great composer-conductor even mentions “Wellesley Hills” by name.

What gives?

David Schweizer, who directs Boston Lyric Opera’s production of “Trouble in Tahiti” (May 11-20), races to the defense of the cities and towns we call home.

Bernstein was “really talking more about a state of mind,” he says.

Maybe. But elsewhere in our conversation, Schweizer suggests that mid-century suburban life (Bernstein wrote the opera in 1952) didn’t sit well with the talented musician with the restless mind.

“He just didn’t buy the social absolutism of it all – the part of suburbia that was fueled by this vehement and unflagging optimism,” says Schweizer. “Everything had to be great: shiny new appliances, endless opportunities for the kids. Bernstein was a provocateur and a political radical. He constantly questioned the standardized norms.”

It doesn’t get more norm than the couple at the center of “Trouble in Tahiti.” The one-act opera is set in an unnamed American suburb (Wellesley Hills is just one on a list of suburbs that are mentioned in the opera). We meet Sam and Dinah, living the American Dream: new family, successful career, two cars, a Chippendale chair, flagstone in the front yard. They’ve got everything you’d want, except love and connection. It’s a sputtering marriage, and it seems that Sam and Dinah don’t have the tools to repair it.

“It’s about the institution of marriage,” says Schweizer, “and what that imposes on the people who enter into it.”

Basing an opera on a failing marriage could be problematic. Who wants to watch that? But Schweizer is confident audiences will root for the couple, in part because they’re played by such “charismatic” singers: mezzo-soprano Heather Johnson and baritone Marcus DeLoach, the only soloists in a score that balances complex classical music with infectious jazz.

“Audiences will really root for them as they go through this minefield,” he says.

Schweizer believes he can also make the problematic marriage more palatable by finding the “undertone of affection” in the couple’s relationship. Audiences would be uninterested in watching a couple bicker, but patrons can sympathize with a loving couple that’s lost its way.

“It’s very relatable to anyone who’s trying to commit to a long-term relationship,” says Schweizer.

The aspect of this production that interests the director the most, however, is the way that he and the BLO have paired “Trouble in Tahiti” with Bernstein’s “Arias & Barcarolles.”

Although “Arias & Barcarolles” is a song cycle that has no narrative, Schweizer has discovered that the themes in the music are connected with the concepts in “Tahiti.” In his staging, Schweizer seeks to unify the two works.

“The big, intriguing element is the pairing of these two pieces,” he says. “One was written at the beginning of the composer’s life, the other was written at the end. There’s the potential that they’ll have an emotional and musical resonance with each other. It’s too tempting not to put them together.”

And then send them to an ice rink.

The Boston Lyric Opera is literally a company on the move, and for “Tahiti”/“Barcarolles,” they’re headed to the Steriti Memorial Rink in Boston’s North End, where Schweizer will turn the venue into a 1950s-era dinner club.

A music company in search of the best acoustics would seem unlikely to set up shop in an ice rink. But Schweizer says the design of the show – which includes new walls and hangings – not only helps create the atmosphere of the club, it also controls the acoustics.

Set designer Paul Tate dePoo III plays a key role in making the ice rink work, and it’s a reminder that so many moving pieces are required to build an opera. It seems that the job descriptions – stage director, conductor, movement director, and so on – could easily, and disastrously, get blurred.

“So much depends on my relationship with the conductor,” says Schweizer. “The movement director is there at my behest, and the singers report to me. But the relationship between the director and the conductor is the fundamental building block. If we have the same vision, and if we both feel supported, then everything else has a high probability of falling into place.”

It’s one of the reasons that Schweizer, who’s based in New York, enjoys working with the BLO.

“I’m very lucky in my relationship with David Angus,” he says, referencing the BLO’s music director who serves as conductor for the opera. “He’s a joy as a collaborator, and a superb musician.”

If only Sam and Dinah got along so well.

In the end, Schweizer offers a compelling argument: “Trouble in Tahiti” is more about a wobbly marriage than a soulless suburb. It’s a bit startling to realize that Bernstein, oddly, wrote “Trouble in Tahiti” on his honeymoon.

“It’s a moving critique of modern marriage,” says Schweizer. “There’s this force in the opera that keeps pushing this idealized American Dream and a post-war sense of the new suburbia and a new prosperity. But young Bernstein wasn’t buying any of it.”

“Trouble in Tahiti and Arias & Barcarolles” plays May 11-20 at the Steriti Memorial Rink in Boston’s North End. Tickets: $32-$102. Visit blo.org.